An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Carlisle United on 16 April 2016.

Two characters who went on to play big roles in the Cambridge United story clashed when England played Northern Ireland at Wembley on 15 May 1974.

Roy McFarland, the home side’s assured, cultured 25-year-old centre half, was up against rather less cultured opposition in the shape of a certain Samuel John Morgan.

It didn’t go well for Roy: he was forced off with an Achilles injury after just 36 minutes, having come off worse in a challenge with our Sammy. He was neither the first nor the last to suffer that fate. 

It took him a year to recover, but he eventually played on, continuing his distinguished career with Derby County and earning 28 caps for his country before moving into player-managership with Bradford City.

Further spells in the gaffer’s chair followed at Derby and Bolton and, when Tommy Taylor left the Abbey Stadium, amid acrimony, for Leyton Orient, Roy applied for, and on 13 November 1996 secured, the manager’s job at Division Three United.

An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Barnet on 26 December 2017.

You can still hear echoes of the joyous whoops that shattered the peace of Coconuts Acres’ long, dusty corridors when the news broke: the Abbey Stadium, known to generations of United supporters as the Abbey Stadium, would henceforth be known officially as the Abbey Stadium.

Although I think the club could have found someone a little less unsightly to present the Coconuts view on its splendid announcement video, we applaud this recognition that some things are sacrosanct.

We recognise that the sale of the naming rights can present football clubs with a valuable – sometimes essential – amount of dosh over prolonged periods. It’s to United’s credit that sources have been found to cover for the future absence of this kind of revenue from Cambs Glass.

Mind you, I’ve never heard any true U's supporter call our ground anything other than the Abbey. No one I know ever said to his mate, ‘See you up the Trade Recruitment on Saturday,’ or ‘Cor, the old R Costings was rocking last night’.

But the Abbey Stadium was not always the Abbey Stadium. Time for a history lesson, perhaps.

In Risen from the Dust, the second volume of the Celery & Coconuts history of United (available from CFU’s online store and the caravan), Andrew Bennett notes that the first official mention of the name came in December 1961, almost 30 years after the opening of the ground in August 1932.

The ‘New Abbey Stadium’ project, the club said, would encompass the erection of the magnificent floodlights you see today and an extension of the cover over the Coldhams Common side terrace.

Ambition was the watchword at United. The club proclaimed its intention ‘to make our stadium one of the finest in football’. It goes without saying that the aim was achieved.

Supporters and directors may well have informally referred to the ground as the Abbey Stadium before 1961, but the more usual descriptions were variations on ‘the Abbey ground’, ‘the United ground’ or simply ‘Newmarket Road’.

To continue the history lesson, have a butcher’s at the photograph on this page, snapped by a passing aeronaut some time before the Corona works at the front of the ground were demolished in 1996.

This article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the game against Barnet on 26 December 2015.

There was wailing and gnashing of teeth at Coconuts Acres when the news of the departure from the Abbey of that nice young man Gearóid Morrissey broke [in December 2015]. He’d looked the business on several occasions, had impressed hard-to-please fans with his pre-season displays and had promised a great deal. To the disappointment of all parties, however, it just didn’t work out in England for the lad. He returned to the place of his birth and re-signed for Cork City on December 10.

Gearóid’s sorry tale brought back a few memories for Coconutters of a certain age. At least G played a few games and even made an impact at Old Trafford, but wasn’t there, back in the 90s, another young Irish player who signed from the Leesiders only to return across the Irish Sea without troubling the teamsheet typists? And, hold on, what about the guy who came from Cobh Ramblers, Cork City’s neighbours, and never played a game? Wasn’t he related to someone famous?

Indeed he was, but let’s start by talking about the first Corkman hinted at above.

Fergus O’Donoghue was 21 when he landed at the Abbey in December 1990, arriving to the sound of his new manager praising him to the skies. ‘He is a very good passer of the ball, quick and tenacious in the tackle and I feel he is a very good addition as far as competition for full-back and centre-back places is concerned,’ John Beck told the Cambridge Evening News. ‘He has two very good feet and the most important ingredient: he is quick.’

Beck also rhapsodised about Fergus’s performance against England’s Lee Sharpe for Ireland Under-21s a month or before: ‘He did ever so well, and even matched him for speed.’

Fergus cost United £36,000, which was to have been supplemented by payments of £5,000 after 15 and 30 U’s appearances and ‘B’ and full international caps. ‘We can’t really afford it,’ said chairman Reg Smart, ‘but we’re looking to the future.’ As it turned out, Reg needn’t have lost any sleep over any additional payments due under the three-year contract.

Having adjusted to full-time training and Beck’s rigorous regime, Fergus made his U’s debut for a shadow side on 8 January 1991, in a 3-1 Hunts Premier Cup win at Ely City. There followed an annoying series of injuries before he got a run-out for the reserves on March 20 in a 4-1 win over Wokingham. Later that month he played again for Ireland’s Under-21s against England at Brentford.

He was still some way from a first-team call-up but was retained for 1991/92 and scored in a 4-3 friendly win at Bar Hill in August, only to go down with a groin strain. Ominously, United paid a club record £150,000 for Shrewsbury centre back Mick Heathcote in September, and on the same day the hapless Fergus suffered another setback when he broke his nose in training.

In October he appeared in the European Under-21 Championship in Poland, and hit the bar with a 25-yard free kick. Later that month the U’s loaned out some fringe players, but an arrangement for Fergus fell through. ‘[He] went down to Maidstone,’ explained Beck, ‘but they were umming and aahing, so we knocked that one on the head.’

He played a few times for the reserves and came on as a sub in the Cambs Professional Cup Final in March 1992, when United beat the Canadian Olympic XI 4-0. In the second week of April, however, the club admitted defeat and cancelled his contract, after 16 months and not a single League game. ‘He is a good footballer, but never managed to adapt to our style,’ commented Beck.

Fergus tried his luck in America with New York Fever and New York Imperials, then returned to Cork City. There he won two League Cups, the League of Ireland Premier Division championship in 1993 and the FAI Cup in 1998 on the way to compiling 149 appearances, before hanging up his boots in 2001. Talk to him now and he will cite Champions League games against Galatasaray and Slavia Prague as stand-out memories in a career that was rewarded by his induction into the Cork City Hall of Fame in 2011.